SSD nightmare! Gah!

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

very desperate for your know-how. I have a pc with one hard drive loaded with windows 7 home premium. i want to install an SSD to act as a boot drive and to launch a select few applications, but i want to keep my current hard drive inside as a storage drive. it has many games and microsoft office documents and spreadsheets on, which i definately don't want to lose.

i may in the future move itunes and steam over to the SSD, but for now i just want to get it to work

i'm absolutely crapping myself that doing this will confuse the heck out of my computer and/or cause conflicts when i'm trying to open programs. to the extent that i am really nervous about buying an SSD

i'm worried about how to install windows 7 on the ssd when i already have it on the hdd. do i have to buy a new copy??

i'm worried that when i pop in a play disc for a game, the pc won't realise that i have it installed already on my hdd and will make me install it again from the launch screen

i'm worried about the fact that a lot of information for my games is stored in the 'users' file on the hard drive...does de-activating/de-registering windows 7 (so i can activate/register the win7 install on the ssd if i can do this) remove all of these files and therefore all my data?

if i create desktop shortcuts to launch games, is all i have to do locate the shortcut file on the hdd and create the desktop shortcut?

YES I AM A STRESS HEAD

I'm DESPERATE for your advice! I don't have anyone to turn to who knows what is required here

i guess all i would like is a step by step guide regarding how to do all this. i'm really sorry for pestering you about this. i'm just at a loss, and i know that ssds are amazing, but i have loads of stuff on my old hdd that i simply can't lose

please can you help me? i have e feeling that i might have to simply buy a new windows 7 home premium retail copy and do a clean install. whilst this might be the best, least stressful way of doing it, it's still £105... but to be honest, as i think you can all tell, at the end of the day if i got this flipping thing to work i will not be complaining! i guess noobs like me can't afford to mess around with things too much!!

all the best,

daniel

ps. in terms of gpus, how highly do you guys rate powercolor? i've been xfx for a while and they have double lifetime warranty. what special does powercolor have?

sorry for the essay!!

 

[tinytomlogan]

Pretty much dude you need to back up FILES as in photos and videos and then start from scratch. If you image the drive TRIM wont work and the SSD will be slower than your gran on a cold sunday morning inside a couple weeks.

Sad to say but you really do needs to start from scratch and install windows fresh, then format the data drive and start from scratch there too

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

If you image the drive TRIM wont work and the SSD will be slower than your gran on a cold sunday morning inside a couple weeks.

Sad to say but you really do needs to start from scratch and install windows fresh, then format the data drive and start from scratch there too

Lol I did like that analogy!

I can live with purchasing windows 7 again to do a fresh install on the ssd. obv it's £100 I never thought I'd have to spend again but it's ok

i don't get why i'd have to reformat the data drive in that case though? i was under the impression that i could simply plug the HDD back in after setting up the ssd and create shortcuts to my exe. files located in the HDD

though that would mean i have two activated copies of windows 7 on 2 hard drives... is that going to cause conflict? i thought as long as i had the ssd as the boot drive then it didn't matter if it was on the other as it wouldn't be booted anyway. this sounds like its going to be a nightmare haha

sorry i'm not being rude i just don't understand lol

or would u even recommend getting a new HDD so i can just transfer files straight over eSATA on my coolermaster haf x case?

you'll be wishing you never 'met' me soon lol

 

[ionicle]

what i recomend

take your current hard drive out

put your SSD in

if you have windows 7 on a disk, install it on the SSD

find an external HDD case and fit your old hard drive into it

plug it in via usb

copy and paste all the files you want to keep on your SSD temporarely...

then format your old hard drive, wipe it clean

reinstall it into your computer

copy and paste the files you want on your 'storage' drive onto it

simples

or alternatively, get a big usb stick, and backup files to that, before installing the new HDD

 

[tinytomlogan]

you shouldnt have to buy windows again?

 

[alienware]

you shouldnt have to buy windows again?

No, he doesnt.

I am the effing master of putting new drives into my PC lol.. What I recommend is this. Tried and tested

1. REMOVE your other drive. The reason for that is simple. Windows is $h@t and will sometimes spread the install onto two drives. Boot partition on one (that 100mb one) and the rest on the SSD. This is seriously not good. So always ONLY have the drive you are installing to in the PC.

2.Tom is right, and I flagged this before. Windows will detect that you are installing to an SSD and then set itself up accordingly (the correct storage drivers, the TRIM command, communications with the SSD bios ETC). Cloning from, even another SSD to your new one is a bad idea mmkay? TRIM will just fail to work and your drive will degrade quicker than a leper sitting in a damp jungle (touche Tom

)

3. When you get in MAKE SURE to follow these steps. Firstly, disable system restore. It's s**t any way and any virus will infect all of the restore points. This will gain you back around 2gb+

Disable/delete Hiberfil.sys google is your friend) this is a hibernation file I strongly doubt you will need and it eats 3gb+ of your SSD.

Attempt to activate Windows. If it fails do the PHONE MICROSOFT thing. This will detatch the license from the machine you had it on before and will attatch it to the one you are using now. It will open a box with ten banks IIRC and some tart on the phone will read you out new ones. Jobby done, install and license switched

(had to do this two days ago with my Vista license).

OK, obs get Windows finished up, important apps on ETC. Then...

Connect the other drive which you want to use as a data drive.

MAKE ABSOLUTELY BLOODY SURE you DO NOT boot this as the primary drive. If you do? one of your installs will deactivate and LOCK YOU OUT completely. I had this happen the other week and I was SO pissed. Basically I cloned my SSD to a 250gb baracuda in order to sell the baracuda and I accidentally booted the SSD with that Windows 7 license on. God knows how it detected (through the network perhaps?) but it killed both installs stone dead. Complete lockout with a message "this version of windows is counterfeit, please call us on this number". And that was it both had to be completely reinstalled

When you get into Windows on the SSD you will notice in your 'my computer' that you have your old drive with all your data and the old windows install on but also an annoying 100mb partition left that was invisible before (the boot partition). Now what I did was simply go into the drive management system in Windows (right click my computer - manage - disk management) and then right click on that 100mb partition and delete it. Leave it there, do not format or re-initialise it or youll have a stupid 100mb portion of drive in your my computer. You can then carefully delete the old windows install files yourself, being careful not to leave any data in your old docus folder or program files.

HTH !

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

Hey guys! thank you so much for all your help so far!

Alien, a few (well more than a few!) questions - does your method mean I can still keep all of the data I NEED on my data drive without having to delete everything? That sounds nice! And if I make shortcuts to the exe. files in this HDD they will still launch in the exact same way as they do now? basically, will everything on the HDD be fully functioning (itunes, microsoft office, games, firefox)

is this what you mean by disabling hiberfill.sys?

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index...delete-in-windows-7-free-up-hard-drive-space/

and is this what you mean by disabling system restore?

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/03/14/how-to-enable-or-disable-system-restore-in-windows-7/

i'm also not sure what specific files i will have to delete to take off the old windows installation on the HDD. are you saying i have to delete the entire contents of my program files and documents folder, or are you saying i should seek out specific files within those folders and delete them? is it absolutely necessary to delete these items in order for things to function in the normal way?

i mean, I can definately tidy everything up, delete or move certain files etc if i do it bit by bit but as long as everything works without problem (so long as I follow all your other steps such as, taking the hdd out when installing the ssd to avoid multiple drive partitions, etc. which i am familiar with from reading around the subject and have no problem with) initially i can live with it

oh, one last thing. i want to move steam, mozilla firefox and itunes (with all my save games, songs, iphone apps and internet settings and bookmarks) onto the SSD with the OS. How do i go about these 3 things? would i have to simply download and install itunes, firefox and steam onto the ssd, find the relevant files on my HDD and simply copy them across? i also want microsoft office on there if i can get away with the space (i'm going for a 120gb vertex 2), will i need to buy a new microsoft office license?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, and you have no idea how much i appreciate your patience with me, as well as your obvious expertise!!! i'm loving the help you're giving. brilliant that you have first hand experience too, as you must have gone through exactly what i am preparing myself for! lol it's a lot of work if you're just new to it

thanks so much!!! everyone who is helping! please by as specific as possible

and i'm sorry for all the questions!

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

and yes i will DEFINATELY make sure i boot to the SSD!!!!!

 

[alienware]

Hey guys! thank you so much for all your help so far!

Alien, a few (well more than a few!) questions - does your method mean I can still keep all of the data I NEED on my data drive without having to delete everything? That sounds nice! And if I make shortcuts to the exe. files in this HDD they will still launch in the exact same way as they do now? basically, will everything on the HDD be fully functioning (itunes, microsoft office, games, firefox)

OK. Yes you can leave your data put. Sorry but I was in a bit of a rush earlier. No, your existing programs will not run from the old drive. When you install something it puts an entry in your registry I'm afraid, so you will need to reinstall all of your programs. However, if you locate things like your firefox bookmarks then you can load them into firefox on the new install once you have reinstalled firefox itself. IIRC it has an importer because my cousin's Raptor drive died a few months ago and he was absolutely adamant that I not lose his BMs. You can also reimport your MP3 library with Itunes IIRC, but don't quote me on that because I don't use it (fookin hate it lol). The one slight issue you may run into is permissions. Basically you might need to set permissions up for your old drive in order to be able to delete from it and write to it. I had this issue yesterday but it went away after a reboot.

is this what you mean by disabling hiberfill.sys?

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index...delete-in-windows-7-free-up-hard-drive-space/

and is this what you mean by disabling system restore?

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/03/14/how-to-enable-or-disable-system-restore-in-windows-7/

Yes to both counts. Basically on an SSD space is at a premium, and a premium cost also. There is no reason why you can't get away with a 40gb drive easily. You just need to run a tight clean ship and that would be more than enough. Obviously it's well worth investing ina 60gb but after that prices soon rocket and IMO it's not worth buying a huge one just so you can fill it with crap.

Another tip after installing Windows onto an SSD is to make absolutely sure that you set your Firefox downloads to another location. If you leave it be it will dump all of the stuff you download into the downloads folder within Windows.

i'm also not sure what specific files i will have to delete to take off the old windows installation on the HDD. are you saying i have to delete the entire contents of my program files and documents folder, or are you saying i should seek out specific files within those folders and delete them? is it absolutely necessary to delete these items in order for things to function in the normal way?

Right. The secret to any type of data movement or migration is always back everything up. So my advice to you would be to find it all NOW and put it on DVDs, BDs or an external hard drive. Copy all of your MP3, photos, videos, anything important. Once you have done that then you can simply go to the root of the drive when you have Windows on the SSD and delete the following folders.

Windows

Program Files

Users

Perflogs

However, the users folder contains all of your documents so again, BACK THEM UP. Do all of that now before you even unwrap the SSD. I am constantly forgetting small things when I move data. Last time I did it? I lost a save game from Fallout 3 that was seven months in the making

i mean, I can definately tidy everything up, delete or move certain files etc if i do it bit by bit but as long as everything works without problem (so long as I follow all your other steps such as, taking the hdd out when installing the ssd to avoid multiple drive partitions, etc. which i am familiar with from reading around the subject and have no problem with) initially i can live with it

As I always say to any one, measure three times, cut once. Make sure you have done your level best to back everything up safely before playing Russian roulette with your data. Only you will regret it if you forget something !

oh, one last thing. i want to move steam, mozilla firefox and itunes (with all my save games, songs, iphone apps and internet settings and bookmarks) onto the SSD with the OS. How do i go about these 3 things? would i have to simply download and install itunes, firefox and steam onto the ssd, find the relevant files on my HDD and simply copy them across? i also want microsoft office on there if i can get away with the space (i'm going for a 120gb vertex 2), will i need to buy a new microsoft office license?

Steam is easy. If you have it right now in your program files directory do the following.

Cut and paste the entire Steam folder to the root directory of the drive (the moving parts one). Obviously if you delete program files before doing that Steam will go with it.

Then, take yourself to www.steampowered.com and download the app. When you come to set it up select custom install and then set the install path to X:\Steam (X where is the drive letter you have put the Steam folder onto the root of). So let's assume your old drive with Steam on the root is say, D: then with the Steam folder being on the root you would then install Steam to D:\Steam. Then when you launch steam it will ask for your login. Log in, and then it will synchronise all of the stuff in your users folder and all of your games without needing to download them again

If you install steam anywhere else? it won't synch them.

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, and you have no idea how much i appreciate your patience with me, as well as your obvious expertise!!! i'm loving the help you're giving. brilliant that you have first hand experience too, as you must have gone through exactly what i am preparing myself for! lol it's a lot of work if you're just new to it

thanks so much!!! everyone who is helping! please by as specific as possible

and i'm sorry for all the questions!

It's not so much expertise mate but trial and error. I have lost countless chunks of data and as the saying goes you live and learn. Also working in a computer store and arguing with people over the "Look mate, your software and data are not my problem they're YOURS".

Backup, backup backup. It's the only way to be safe, or you will definitely be bloody sorry

EDIT.. A couple more tips.

1. The main reason you disable system restore is basically because it takes an image of your entire install. As your install grows so does the image and system restore is about as useful as a chocolate teapot on account of virii being able to f**k it. Do yourself a favour and invest in something like Acronis. Then simply create images to the old drive

I shall add more when they come to me

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

ok all of this looks very cool so far, thanks!

"OK. Yes you can leave your data put. Sorry but I was in a bit of a rush earlier. No, your existing programs will not run from the old drive. When you install something it puts an entry in your registry I'm afraid, so you will need to reinstall all of your programs."

so say for my game, knights of the old republic, which has a saved game in my current C: all I have to do is copy that file to say an external hard drive, put in the disk to bring up the launcher, uninstall the game, install the game again and place the saved game file back in the relevant file on the HDD. This creates the registry and makes it playable?

that sounds like it will work

however, games seem to be utilising the 'users' and 'appdata' folders more these days for saving games in. 'dragon age: origins' does this. when i install windows on the SSD and it creates the users folder, is this the folder where saved game data like 'dragon age' will be installed to despite me selecting the HDD data drive as the drive to install the game to during installation?

would i have to copy the data from the users folder on my HDD to an external hard drive, uninstall the game, reinstall the game (again to the HDD) and place the copied data back into the users folder IN THE NEW SSD BOOT DRIVE where the OS has created the new users folder in order to retrieve my saved game data? will that all still work?

i guess things like these will have to take some figity work and backing up, but i'm getting more confident that i am understanding what to do now thanks to you

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

my steam location is currently C:/Games/Steam

when it comes to putting it on the SSD I would simply copy the whole Steam folder, dump it straight on the SSD in it's own little folder, download and install steam straight over the top of this directory, login and it will sync? that's cool and more efficient than i thought it would be

itunes is going to be the biggest mess, followed closely my mircosoft office! lol why am i getting an ssd again?

 

[GoldenbanjoDJ]

just to let you know, guys, that my SSD install was a complete success!

Strangely, didn't have to ring up microsoft to get a new code, the exact same code from my old copy worked straight away lol

i did all the necessary backing up and everything i want is in order

did reformat my storage drive. everything is much cleaner now! i find that even when i lose loads of data and start pulling my hair out, i re-do it better the second time round

thanks for all your help!!

 

[Rastalovich]

Just as a tip (reading the hibernation bit).

Don't delete any files, just open a cmd (run as admin) and use the command "powercfg.exe -h off".